First Group Battle (II)

As I flew through the air, I positioned myself such that the first slash of my cyclone slash would decapitate one of the knights in one go while the other two slashes would do some damage as close as possible to the necks as of the other two knights since it wasn't possible to decapitate all three of them at once with the skill.

After seeing Ellie's ridiculous damage output upon striking the neck of Sir Landon, I had already decided on my playstyle to fight non-magical humans and beasts from now on – only target fatal points and do so with deadly efficiency.

With my 97% synchro rate, I mused that such a strategy suited me best. My synchro rate allowed me to move fluidly and react within split seconds, and this was a massive advantage in any melee battle. If I had the ability to strike within split seconds, I can pretty much guarantee hits that the opponent would not be able to react to, making me almost invincible against anyone my level or lower.

Once I got closer to the knights, I immediately unleashed the cyclone slash and spun through the air, instantly decapitating the first knight and damaging the other two.

*Slit!*

[Critical Hit!]

[Fatal Hit!]

-3420!

[HP: 0/3000 (0%)]

[You have gained 300 Experience]

[You have earned 50 silver]

[Your «Cyclone Slash» mastery has increased]

*Clank!*

-225!

[HP: 2,643/3000 (93%)]

*Clank!*

-300!

[HP: 2,700/3000 (90%)]

Thick red blood jetted out of the headless knight and sprayed over the other two knights, who had deep bloody gashes on their arms, as the knight's corpse hit the ground.

I flew over the corpse and landed on the ground, in front of Ellie. As soon as I landed, I immediately adopted a sword stance and prepared myself to take the remaining two knights solo.

The first slash of my cyclone slash decapitated the first knight like I expected and the damage I inflicted on the other two knights was consistent with my calculations.

From my damage, the knights wore armor that gave them an overall Physical Defense of 150, which was higher than what I had.

Ellie and the knights were completely shocked. My attack came out of nowhere and happened in the blink of an eye, so their reactions were understandable.

What I just did was extremely hard to pull off, and I seriously doubted that any player without a synchro rate near mine would be able to pull that off successfully.

I didn't give the two knights the chance to regain their composure and immediately charged toward the one with lower health and slashed my sword upwards towards his neck fiercely with great speed.

*Clank!*

[Critical Hit!]

-1920!

[HP: 780/3000 (26%)]

[Battle Alert: Status effect «Bleed» has been applied to Sir Jacob Vaughn]

The knight's instincts had kicked in and made him step back right before my sword could slice his face into two, saving his life. Though, my sword had left a deep gash on his neck and lower part of his face.

I had made him bleed as well. From what I read in the game notes, the «Bleed» status effect made an enemy lose health proportional to the severity of the injury over time.

I immediately charged once more towards Sir Jacob, who was stumbling and wailing in anguish while clutching his neck.

On instinct, I swung my sword with all my strength towards his neck again, attempting to end his life once and for all. However, I made a grave miscalculation.

The other knight had regained his composure and charged towards me at the same time I charged towards Sir Jacob, and swung his halberd fiercely towards my waist, aiming to deliver a lethal strike.

By the time I saw this, I was already right in front of Sir Jacob. One would think that I would not be able to dodge the lethal strike because everything happened way too fast.

Though that wasn't the case. I was surprised to see that his halberd seemed to be moving so slow…almost at turtle speed.

I glanced around me and realized that it wasn't just the halberd– everything around me had turned extremely slow…almost as if I was watching a video at 0.25x speed.

I was confused on why that was the case, however I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind since I was in battle. Whatever made things slow didn't matter. All that mattered was that now, I had the opportunity to evade the knight's lethal strike and decapitate him before he could react.

Thus, I immediately canceled my slash mid-skill, leaped off the ground, and rotated my body in the air such that my head was now just above the blade of the halberd. As I rotated mid-air, I slashed horizontally towards the knight's neck with all my strength.

It was then that everything returned back to normal speed.

[Critical Hit!]

[Fatal Hit!]

-3420!

[HP: 0/3000 (0%)]

[You have gained 300 Experience]

[Your «Slash» mastery has increased]

[You have earned 43 silver]

[Warning! Steel Sword's durability had dropped below 10%]

After I hit the other knight, I rotated my body and gracefully landed back on the ground.

My slash instantly decapitated the knight with the halberd. And following that, the knight's halberd cut through Sir Jacob like a hot knife through butter and split his body into two, spurting blood everywhere in the process.

[You have gained 300 Experience]

[Your «Slash» mastery has increased]

[You have earned 53 silver]

System notifications bombarded me as soon as the two unfortunate knights lost their lives to my sword…well, technically just the knight to the halberd but whatever. I paid no attention to them and simply stared at my sword blankly as I got drenched in blood.

'Was that because of my synchro rate? If so…this mechanic is really game changing.'

I thought with wide eyes upon realizing that the sudden slowing of the battle was due to my abnormally high synchro rate. I couldn't help but grin madly and tremble with excitement. I could never move so seamlessly in any game before this.

If this were any other game, I would definitely have not been able to perform what I just did. This synchro rate mechanic was simply built for me. I never knew my reflexes were this next-level. Maybe I can finally become a star player….at last…

'This feels…amazing,' I continued to think as I reveled in the bliss of being powerful. My thirst for battle reached new heights. I wanted to fight, I wanted to bathe in the blood of the adversaries downed by my sword, I wanted to feel the ecstasy of killing enemies while performing impossible maneuvers.

I was feeling amped up to the max.

Though, I snapped out of my thoughts when I remembered that Ellie was still here. I looked at her to find her gaping at me with her jaw dropped and her eyes widened.

I chuckled seeing that. I couldn't blame her. What I just did was next-level. I just completely destroyed 3 opponents that were 2 higher levels than me, and had a better class while taking 0 damage in the process. It was truly baffling.

"Are you alright?" I asked Ellie softly as I quickly approached her and helped her get up.

Ellie hesitated, I could see that something was troubling her. She was about to speak when I interrupted her,

"Ellie, I don't know what happened but we're on a battlefield right now. We need to go and back up the other mercenaries and protect the cargo. Focusing on anything else would mean your death, you've got to focus. Once this is all over, you can tell me about what is troubling you."

I said, looking at her intently. Ellie still seemed to be hesitating. But, she took a deep breath and stared back at me with firm eyes and an expressionless face, entering Ice queen mode…damn, she looks so good right now.

'Focus Tristan…Focus.' I thought, removing such thoughts from my teenage mind.

"Alright, let's go." I said to her, to which she nodded firmly.

I walked over to the corpses of the dead knights and stabbed my worn out steel sword beside them. I needed a new sword so I wanted to take theirs. Though, I suddenly got an idea….What if I tried fighting with two swords, could my playstyle evolve?

The thought seemed very attractive, almost as if it was meant to pop up in my head. It seemed simply built for me so I decided to go with it.

I picked up the swords of two of the dead knights and flicked them to clean the sword of its blood.

[You have obtained a Carbonium Sword (Uncommon)]

[You have obtained a Carbonium Sword (Uncommon)]

I looked at Ellie, nodded at her and charged towards the center of the battle field. Ellie followed after my lead and charged behind me.

As we rushed, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the knights we were going to face. They had better watch out, because Ellie and I are going to unleash hell on this battlefield….